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CEO Profile: Livingston's life led to running National Trail Raceway

Jay Livingston, co-owner and general manager of National Trail Raceway, in front of an arial photo of the Hebron raceway. Livingston grew up around drag racing on the west coast.(Photo: Sara C. Tobias/The Advocate)

HEBRON – Jay Livingston bought National Trail Raceway in June of 2018. He’s now the facility’s co-owner and general manager – something he’s been preparing for his entire life.

“Some people hunt, fish, their kids become involved with sports,” he said. “But my family – we raced.”

Livingston, now 54, grew up in central Oregon. His father raced a front-end dragster and the family traveled to various tracks with him. Then when Livingston was about to go into 4th grade in 1972, the family moved to Woodburn, Oregon. His father had purchased Woodburn Dragstrip, so Livingston helped him all he could.

“Growing up,” he recalled, “and working for my father, he would say, ‘You’re making an investment into your future. Woodburn Dragstrip will be yours one day.’ But I never dreamed of being a race car driver and never dreamed of owning a racetrack. It was never in my thought process.”

All that changed, however. “I got the racing bug as I turned 21,” he said.

Livingston went to Spokane, Washington to manage the Spokane County Raceway. In 2009 he returned to Oregon to work with his father, then bought (with his step-sister) Woodburn Dragstrip from his father to begin the 2011 racing season. He ran the operation until he sold it in the spring of 2018.

Then he received a phone call to tell him National Trail Raceway was for sale. He came to Hebron, took a tour and soon bought it.

“My teenage years and adult life,” Livingston said, “have been involved in operating and promoting drag racing events. That’s been my life. That’s what my family has always done.”

“But I never dreamed,” he concluded, “of owning such a historic racetrack as National Trail Raceway.”

Seriously ...

Q. What do you enjoy most about your job?

A. I enjoy taking a fledgling business and putting new life into it.

Q. What are you most proud of about your career?

A. That I was able to manage a host of nationally known dragstrips and make a difference in them.

Q. What has been the biggest challenge in leading National Trail Raceway?

A. Letting people know that the racetrack is under local ownership for the first time since the Rader family sold the track back in 1995.

Q. What would you like people to know about National Trail Raceway they may not know?

A. We host NHRA Championship Drag Racing events from April to October each year. We are the host site of the JEGS SportsNationals in July. National Trail Raceway hosts the OHSAA State Cross Country meet each year in November. New in 2019 Wonderlights Production will host Christmas in Ohio, a 2-mile car ride through more than a million LED lights synchronized to music from November 15th to January 5th.

Q. How has National Trail Raceway changed through the years?

A. National Trail Raceway began as a family run business (operated by the Rader family) that was then sold to the National Hot Rod Association and in 2019, Jay Livingston purchased National Trail Raceway with local ownership.

On the lighter side ...

Q. What is your favorite movie?

A. Top Gun

Q. What is your favorite TV show?

A. Gold Rush/NHRA Drag Racing

Q. What’s your favorite type of music?

A. Classic Rock

Q. What is your favorite book?

A. Any book that is Non-Fiction

Q. What is your favorite sport or activity to participate in?

A. Basketball

Q. What is your favorite sport to watch?

A. College Football

Q. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

A. Weatherman – to control the weather

Q. What is your favorite meal?

A. Steak

Q. Who is the person you most admire in your life?

A. My mom Margie Winans. She has supported me and stuck by me through thick and thin.

Q. Who is a public figure you most admire?

A. The late Wally Parks – NHRA founder

Q. What’s your dream vacation?

A. Anywhere on a sunny beach.

Q. If you could be in any other job or profession, what would it be?

A. Weatherman, you can always be wrong and never get fired.

For more

National Trail Raceway is located at 2650 National Road in Hebron. For more information call 740-928-5706 or log on www.nationaltrailraceway.com.